U.S. Life Expectancy Declined Nearly a Year in 2021, Deepening Historic Slide
. The increasing prevalence of illicit fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that was involved in about 66% of overdose deaths, is thought to be a major contributing factor. Researchers believe that the pandemic made substance use riskier by adding to isolation and worsening mental health, as well as disrupting patients’ access to treatment programs and health care.
Black people, Hispanics, and native peoples experienced the greatest total declines in life expectancy from 2019 to 2021. The worst decline during both years was among American Indian and Alaska Natives: 1.9 years from 2020 to 2021, leading to a total decline of 6.6 years since 2019. However, in 2021, white people also saw a significant drop in life expectancy: one year. That’s compared to Black people and Hispanics . This isn’t because conditions improved for Black and Hispanic communities, Stokes emphasizes; rather, it was because more white people died. COVID-19 caused 54.1% of the decline in white life expectancy.
“I think it’s fair to say that at least part of the [U.S.’s] poor performance is due to the lackluster health care response and of vaccines,” says Stokes. “Things could have been different if we had had a more rigorous public health response.”
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